Giving new strength to Supreme Court, Lok Sabha clears bill to increase number of SC judges

Pending cases in Supreme Court is always a topic of criticism in India. Now, taking a positive step on the backdrop of nearly 60,000 pending cases in the Supreme Court, a bill to increase the number of judges in the top court from 30 to 33 was introduced and passed in Lok Sabha on Monday.

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As of now, the Supreme Court has a sanctioned strength of 30 judges, plus the chief justice of India so that, 31 judges.

Once the bill gets parliamentary approval, its sanctioned strength will go up to 33, plus the CJI, according to the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Bill introduced by Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

The apex court is functioning with its full strength.

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The bill comes days after Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to increase the number of Supreme Court judges.

Due to paucity of judges, the required number of constitution benches to decide important cases involving questions of law were not being formed, the CJI said.

“You would recall that way back in 1988, about three decades ago, the judge strength of the SC was increased from 18 to 26, and then again after two decades in 2009, it was increased to 31, including the CJI, to expedite disposal of cases to keep pace with the rate of institution,” he wrote.

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The feeder cadre of Chief Justices and judges of the High Courts has increased from 906 to 1079 and presently new High Courts have also been established in the previous year, said Union Minister Prasad.

The Chief Justice of India had intimated the government that inadequate strength of judges is one of the prime reasons for the backlog of cases in the apex court.

COURTESY:-NEWS BHARATI